The icloud app includes access to files, document viewing, and uploading of photos directly from mobile device cameras. The iPhone version enables you to directly share any file from your phone and email it as a link using the iPhone’s built-in email.

icloud also has an “Easy Upload” system to keep desktop computers synced with icloud, similar to what’s offered by Dropbox and Egnyte, among many others.

icloud has matured considerably since Simon wrote about it over a year ago. It’s not an operating system like Chrome OS or Jolicloud, but works in a browser. The service is now operational in multiple desktop and laptop browsers and operating systems, as long as Java has been installed. I’ve tried it in Chrome on a Mac, and it seems stable and reasonably speedy.

In addition, beyond the basic productivity apps Simon talked about, there are more apps that work within icloud’s operating system, including IM, RSS and Twitter apps; business trend and money-management apps; a bunch of games; audio, video and internet radio players; and a system for developing your own custom icloud apps.

The free version includes 3 GB of storage space, but you can purchase a premium account with 100 GB of storage for $39.99 per year.

Of course, there are now lots of web-based options for being productive away from one’s office computer. We’ve covered a large number of options for syncing files, contacts, to-do lists, and calendars with mobile devices. But if you like the idea of having a “workspace in the cloud” that you can customize to meet your needs, you might want to try icloud.

Have you used icloud, or other “web operating systems?”

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For Gmail users with an iPhone who work from home, this is great news. Often, those of us not plugged in to the corporate world miss out on the little niceties like Exchange information syncing. Google Sync, now that it includes Gmail, offers a great free alternative for those of us who’ve left our office working days behind. And it uses Microsoft Exchange technology to do it.

Now you can manage your contacts, calendar and email all from your smartphone, and have that information synced back to the cloud in real time, so that wherever you access it, you’ll be looking at the same thing. I’ve been using MobileMe to do that for about a year now, but since many people already use Gmail, and since Google’s alternative is free, this is much more useful for most people.

If you’d like to set up your iPhone or iPod Touch to work with Google Sync, check out the instructions posted by the official Google Mobile team. Some may prefer to continue using Gmail on IMAP with their device, since it means you can set the schedule by which you’re notified of new mail, instead of having incoming messages dictate to you. Also, keep in mind that the iPhone supports only one Exchange account at a time, so if you have one already for work, you won’t be able to take advantage of Google Sync.

Are you using Google Sync?

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To answer this question, I wanted to move beyond the standard CRM and invoicing tools which are critical to the day-to-day functioning of my business, and share something that might not be so obvious. The first thing that popped into my mind was file sharing and syncing app Dropbox, and even after more discussion and heated conversation, nothing could change my answer. The benefit of synchronized files and access from any PC is obvious, but as I’ve been using the service it has really become a critical part of my daily process.

Dropbox is a file sharing application that is amazingly simple to use. The installation creates a Dropbox folder on your computer — drop in a file and it miraculously appears on all of your shared computers. Individual folders can also be shared with other users. Here are some ways that I use Dropbox for maximum productivity.

Password Synchronization: With the sheer volume of user accounts I manage, a good password management system is critical. I’ve come to rely on RoboForm for this purpose, and Dropbox makes it dead simple to keep all of my account information and passwords in sync. Just move your RoboForm profile to a Dropbox folder, point all your computers to it and voila — easily log in to any of your sites from any of your computers, and never forget a password again.

Simple Network Sharing: For some of my home or small business clients, particularly those using laptops away from their offices, Dropbox is often a better solution for file sharing than setting up a shared network folder. The built-in versioning functionality is really handy and the ability to access files when away from the home or office is much appreciated. When the client returns to the office or checks in from a coffee shop, any changes to the files they are working on are automatically pushed back to the other users on their network.

File Distribution: I’ve set up shared Dropbox folders for a number of my clients and find it a great way to distribute reports and other information to them. The “push” of the information to them removes the need for them to seek out or retrieve the data that they need. It also makes it really easy for them to share files back to me, without needing to worry about email limits and such. Because there are no new interfaces to learn, it also has a very shallow learning curve. This makes adoption for the less tech-savvy much easier.

The fact that Dropbox is so easy to use and so flexible makes it a great addition to my services toolbox. Dropbox is free for up to 2GB of storage with monthly plans available, up to $19.99 for 100GB.

How are you enhancing your productivity with Dropbox? I would love to hear about your creative uses for the service in the comments.

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I thought I’d share some tips gleaned from my latest move to a new desktop. My way isn’t necessary the best way, but it may give you some ideas when it comes time for you to make the switch. Here are the steps that I took.

1. Back up your data. Use an online backup service like BackBlaze or Mozy. (Solo web workers should have an offsite backup solution, anyway) I also have an external drive that does nothing but back up my computer’s data. The free built-in Microsoft Windows Synctoy took care of my syncing. Make sure you synchronize everything, including the data on any mobile devices.
2. Take a computer inventory. Run System Information for Windows (SIW), Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder and Belarc Advisor.  Save the output files in Gmail or someplace where you can access it from any computer. These free applications create a list of installed software, license keys, hardware inventory, network information and other details. These apps are all free.
3. Put the computers near each other. This makes the move easier and allows you to check what’s on the old computer and install it on the new PC and compare the setups. It’s also worth checking which apps are used frequently. While the inventory software lists all the installed applications, you might not need to exactly duplicate your setup. The key is to get the important and most frequently used tools and software installed so you can get up and running on the new machine. Then, if you find you need one of the apps you didn’t move over to the new machine later, you can install it. Don’t pressure yourself to get everything installed.
4. Install the applications and tools. Dig up all your software, download the ones that don’t have a CD/DVD and download updated software. Some of my software (Palm Desktop, for example) is so old that I didn’t bother using the original CD/DVD to install it. Instead, I went to the companies’ web sites to download the latest versions.
5. Share folders over the network. Turn on network file-sharing by opening Explorer. Find the folders you want to copy to your new computer, right-click the folder and select “Share.” Look for the option to share the folder (it’s different in Windows XP and Vista). Doing this, I shared the folder with all my work documents so that I had instant access to the documents I needed without waiting for the online backup to do its job. The online backup application then restored the rest of the files.
6. Copy the data from old to new.
7. Start using the new computer. I plan to keep the old computer nearby for a little while so if I run into something I need to customize or verify, I can look at it and update the new computer accordingly.
8. Set up a backup system. Whether you used one before or not, put a backup system in place. Even new computers mess up and you never know when some disaster decides to make life harder for your home. It can happen. I was in my grandparents’ house when it caught fire.

Having many of my applications and data in the cloud made this the easiest and fastest desktop transition ever.

What other ways can you ease and speed up the transition from old computer to new?

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Thanks to my smartphone, I don’t carry my laptop very much, unless I’m doing a presentation or going on an extended trip. But it’s nice to have my desktop sync with my laptop, so that it’s ready when I need it. And that’s where things start getting complicated.

My desktop’s a Mac mini, and my laptop’s a Toshiba Libretto U105 (which was a netbook before they started calling them that) running Windows XP. So how do I synchronize my data? It can be done, but it’s harder than it should be.

• Contacts. I use the Apple Address Book, and sync it to my Google Contacts with Googaby. On the laptop, I use Thunderbird with the gContactSync add-on.
• Calendar. I set up several calendars through Google Apps. I’ve subscribed to the calendars in both Apple iCal (on the Mac) and Mozilla Sunbird (on the PC). Alas, the future of Sunbird is unclear at the moment.
• Passwords. I use SplashID because it syncs flawlessly with my Treo, although I’ve also been experimenting with LastPass, which is better at filling in some web forms, but is a bit obtrusive for my taste.
• Bookmarks. For those of us who use Firefox, Weave will probably be a great system someday. But right now, it’s too experimental: It only supports the upcoming Firefox 3.5, and it has a tendency to stop working at random intervals. In the meantime, I’m reluctantly using Xmarks — which strikes me as trying to do too many things. If you turn off all of the options except bookmark syncing, the Firefox add-on seems to work fine. But the Safari version is hard to install and obtrusive. (I mostly use Firefox anyway, so I turned Xmarks for Safari off.)
• Files. Dropbox. It’s easy. It just works.

If you’re wondering how all of these programs get along, well, they do, mostly. Googaby slows my Mac to a crawl when it’s updating, but it doesn’t update very often. Dropbox and Missing Sync work perfectly, and without getting in the way.

So why don’t I just use the web interfaces of all of these programs, and not worry about syncing?

It’s nice to have local backups in case Google goes down (which it does occasionally) or if my Internet connection goes south (which is does more often than I would like). Google Gears helps, but it’s not as smooth as having local copies of everything.

Both Apple Mail and Thunderbird make it much easier to manage and transfer messages between multiple accounts. Gmail Manager is a great way of accessing multiple accounts through Firefox, but it doesn’t let me drag and drop messages between accounts, like I can in Apple Mail.

One of these days, we might be able to use any computer, any browser, and get to our own “mobile desktop.” Glide is working on such a system, as are Xcerion, although neither system is complete.

In the meantime, syncing basic data between computers is much too complex. As long as desktop applications are more robust than their web counterparts, sync will be needed, so let’s hope easier and more user-friendly systems are on the way.

How do you manage data in multiple locations?

Image by stock.xchng user flaivoloka

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I have two computers: a MacBook Pro and an iMac. Even though Firefox 3 is my default browser on both computers, I regularly have at least three different browsers open to do what I need to do in my work day. Certain sites only work in Internet Explorer, while others simply behave better in Chrome or Safari. Other sites are bookmarked in Safari solely for the iPhone.

Foxmarks has long been the free go-to utility for syncing bookmarks between multiple instances of Firefox. I’ve long preferred Foxmarks to Mozilla Weave which, while it syncs more information between Firefox browsers, I’ve found to be less reliable. For non-Firefox browsers, I’ve had to use my.foxmarks.com to access sites using IE or Safari that are bookmarked in Firefox.

No more. Last week, Foxmarks introduced syncing for both IE and Safari (I can’t wait for a Chrome version).

How does it sync browsers that don’t support plug-ins the way Firefox does?

On the Mac, it installs a new system preference:

On the PC, it’s a little application that can also sit in the system tray:

This solution is not quite as elegant as it is for Firefox, where it can work entirely in the browser without requiring any additional system resources. On the other hand, you don’t have to wait for IE or Safari to launch to sync bookmarks, like you do with Firefox.

After a few hours of testing, I’m quite satisfied. Make a change to bookmarks in one browser, and within seconds the files are synced in all other browsers, regardless of the platform. I did notice that the Firefox “Bookmarks Toolbar” is renamed to “Links” during the sync and is accessible through a drop-down menu in the upper right corner.

Limitations:

• It does not appear that Foxmark’s new password syncing is available outside of Firefox. For site password syncing that is available cross-browser, I would highly recommend 1Password on the Mac (works in both Firefox and Safari) and RoboForm on the PC (works in IE and Firefox, among others, not including Chrome).
• On the Mac, it only works in Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5)
• On the PC, it only works in IE 6 & 7 and it’s a bit buggier than the Mac/Firefox syncing. It did crash IE once for me. Of all the browsers I use, I’m in IE the least so this is not an issue for me. But if IE is your mainstay browser, perhaps because a work-related application requires it, you should probably hold off on Foxmarks.

Have you tried Foxmarks? What tools do you use for browser bookmark syncing?

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For those with a Mac on your desk but a PC in your pocket, Eltima Software offers SyncMate, a software solution to keep your Mac and mobile device connected. SyncMate Free lets you connect your Mac with your PDA or Pocket PC (aka Windows Mobile device), keeping documents, contacts, calendars and more all up to date across both devices.

Support for Entourage and Google Calendar and Contacts seem like nice touches. Sync is available via USB or WiFi.

The Expert Edition adds support for iTunes and iPhoto along with to-dos, mail, bookmarks, call history and more.

We didn’t have anyone here with this hardware combination to test (it seems most Mac users I know have one of those iPhones) so if you try it be sure to let us know your opinions.

SyncMate is available for free download while the Expert Edition runs $39.95. Additional Family Pack and Business License options are available.

It is compatible with Windows Mobile Pocket PC 2005/2006, Windows Mobile Smartphone 2005/2006 and Mac OS X 10.4 and higher / Mac OS X 10.5

Do you need to connect a Mac with a Pocket PC/Windows Mobile device? What do you use?

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We have covered a few utilities that have tried to solve the 2-way syncing issue, but none have been rock solid enough to use full time.  In fact, I’ve destroyed my Outlook calendar multiple times trying to sync with my Google Calendar.  This is why I was very happy to see Google has released a Calendar Sync tool.

To get started, download the application and walk through the install process.  Once installed, you’ll be presented with 3 options:

• 2-way sync, applies changes to both your Google Calendar and Outlook calendars with each other
• 1 way sync where Google Calendar events will be presented on your Outlook calendar
• 1-way sync where your Outlook calendar events are presented on your Google Calendar.

Another available option includes setting the update interval between calendars.  You’re  able to set the interval for a minimum of 10 minutes.

An icon will sit in your system tray to keep you alert on the status of the sync tool.  Keep in mind, you can’t work with multiple calendars both on the Google side and the Outlook side of the sync.  You can only sync your primary Google and Outlook calendars.

While this is an exciting development, this utility is only available for Microsoft Windows and Outlook.  It will be nice when the Apple iCal application is supported with 2-way sync with Google Calendar.

Additionally, there are other ways to enhance your Google Calendar.

[via Official Google Blog]

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